ECS NF650iSLIT-A (V1.0) Mainboard Review. Page 2

We would like to talk about a mainboard from Elitegroup Company on Nvidia nForce 650i SLI chipset. Price is expected to be one of its major advantages, but there any other? Let’s see if we manage to find them!

Package and Accessories

The reverse side of the package contains a brief list of major technical specification of this solution in several languages, and the photo of the mainboard inside illustrates all the things listed:

The box is not a thick one because the board boasts a truly Spartan accessories set. Among the things you will get with the mainboard from ECS are the following items:

A promo flyer telling you about the advantages of Nvidia SLI Technology;

Bridge for dual graphics card configurations;

Bracket that would hold two graphics cards together;

User’s manual;

CD disk with the drivers; one IDE and one SATA cable;

I/O Shield for rear panel;

A huge poster with the multi-lingual installation instructions (it serves as a background for our picture).

Of course, rich accessories bundle is always a plus. However, not very numerous accessories are not always a bad thing, especially if they can reduce the price of the end product. When you buy your first mainboard, you read everything that’s written on the box, check out all the pictures, feel very pleased with every small accessory that the manufacturer has included “for free”. However, when you replace the mainboard, you don’t have to replace the FDD or HDD cables with it, so why would I want to pay for things that I don’t actually need over and over again? Even considering the tiny effect these cables and brackets have on the end price of the mainboard, I simply may not want to carry all that stuff home. I already have so many FDD and IDE cables that I could easily cover my entire office floor with them. And even though SATA cables are a relatively new thing, in the beginning all manufacturers included 4-8 cables with their mainboards, so now I can decorate a few tall Christmas trees. So, I am absolutely not upset that there was no FDD cable with my ECS NF650iSLIT-A mainboard.